Configuring user accounts for your optimised PC

Users accounts are a feature in Windows which allows you to have individual configurations for the various people who use your PC. By default your PC has been pre-configured with the following settings:

Username: Owner

Password: password

User Account Type: Administrator

Automatic Login: Enabled

Password Protected File Sharing: Enabled

Remote Desktop Connection: Disabled

If your computer lives at home and you are the only person who uses your computer (or you share it with someone you trust) and you’re happy with it logging in automatically, you can skip this section – everything has been setup for you. If you ever travel, connect to networks outside your home, share your PC with untrusted users (yes, that includes the kids!) or need some form of password security, continue below.

Managing User Accounts

In order to have the optimal account settings configuration for your system, you may need to change some settings. It is recommended that you at least change your default password for your user account to improve your system security.

Please note that you will need to re-configure the automatic login settings each time you change account settings such as passwords. If you do not re-configure automatic login it will throw an error each time you start your PC.

To change user account settings, open User Accounts from the Control Panel (Start → Control Panel → User Accounts). From there you can configure new accounts, change account names, and change your password.

Once you have changed your password, you will then need to reconfigure your automatic login. To do this, either click on the “Configure Auto-login” shortcut on your desktop, or open a Run Command window (Start → Run) and type “control userpasswords2”. Once the user accounts window has appeared, untick and then re-tick the “users must enter a username and password to use this computer” checkbox and then click OK.

Re-enter your password and your computer will now automatically login correctly with your new password.

Adding Additional Users

If you want to share your computer with others but don’t want them to share access to your personal settings and files, you can create additional user accounts. To manage user accounts, open the User Accounts window as shown in the section above. Click on the “manage another account” or “add a new user” button and you will be able to add and remove users.

When creating additional user accounts, consider the levels of authentication that you want to give your users. At the top level is an “administrator” which has access to all levels of the system and can install software and change settings without restriction. A “standard” user has the ability to perform most tasks but are limited to their user account and must have an administrator to authenticate them to install new software. On the lowest level is a “child” account, which has the fewest capabilities and has their activity monitored and reported to the administrators on the computer.

In addition to this, Windows 8 and above can use your Microsoft Account as a user account. Read more about user accounts here.